Creating a System for Innovation: Districts Redesign to Support Personalized Learning

• In Event: Lessons Learned From the Design and Implementation of Personalized Learning in K–12 Schools

Abstract

Emerging findings about personalized learning and student outcomes in K-12 are encouraging (BMFG, 2014; Murphy et al., 2014), but researchers are still at the very beginning of understanding more specifically how personalized learning actually matters to student learning and what it takes to successfully implement and expand personalized learning models across different contexts.

In this paper we present preliminary findings from a multi-method study of Foundation-funded initiatives to seed and grow personalized learning models across 17 different cities and 44 schools across three different approaches to reform: (1) reforms that focus on redesigning key district system (e.g. procurement, staffing, resource allocation) to create conditions for schools to explore and implement personalized learning thus pushing down toward school change (2) reforms that support existing schools within districts to implement personalized learning with the expectation that their new needs and demands compel them to push reform up and out through the school system and (3) reforms that support key influential external partners with the expectation that these partners can push in personalized learning.

The paper analyses the early implementation of these reforms to describe the underlying theory of action behind the initiatives, how those expectations compare to early implementation, and the challenges and barriers encountered in the sites so far. Throughout, we emphasize how systems - within and beyond the participating school districts and CMOs — shape implementation and the prospects of adopting and developing personalized learning models in K-12.

Authors

• Michael DeArmond, University of Washington

• Betheny Gross, University of Washington

• Robin Lake, Center on Reinventing Public Education - University of Washington

• Tricia Maas, University of Washington